Latest Posts


  • Change, Transformation and Complex Problems: My Top 5 Posts of 2017

    One of my 2017 resolutions was to blog more consistently.  The glory days in terms of the readership and reach of this site peaked in 2014 before a decline in 15/16. The problem was lack of discipline. My blogging lesson… Continue reading

    Change, Transformation and Complex Problems: My Top 5 Posts of 2017
  • Why We Need To Learn To Love Project Managers

    ‘There isn’t a child alive who dreams of being a project manager’ –  so said Scott Berkun. He pointed out that project managers can unintentionally reinforce their work as (let’s be honest) dull – by trying to get everyone to pay… Continue reading

    Why We Need To Learn To Love Project Managers
  • How To Kill Innovation In 10 Easy Steps

    Many of our organisations, without realising it, act as inhibitors of innovation. Rules and protocols are put in place — often for very good reasons — that preserve the status quo. Over time, organisations develop a set of social norms… Continue reading

    How To Kill Innovation In 10 Easy Steps
  • The Case Against Digital Transformation

    Something that’s being sold to you as more convenient may well be a lost social interaction that you’ll never get back – Ben Holliday, Convenience Isn’t Digital Last week a friend of ours told me a story about trying to get some… Continue reading

    The Case Against Digital Transformation
  • How The 9-5 Saps Our Creativity and Harms Our Productivity

    From ten to eleven, have breakfast for seven; From eleven to noon, think you’ve come too soon; From twelve to one, think what’s to be done; From one to two, find nothing to do; From two to three, think it… Continue reading

    How The 9-5 Saps Our Creativity and Harms Our Productivity
  • How To Design For Better Outcomes

    Our job is to the mind the gap between the bureaucracy of our systems and the opportunities in our communities – Cormac Russell Sometimes it’s preferable to pull the plug on a service before you see it collapse in front of… Continue reading

    How To Design For Better Outcomes
  • An A-Z of Modern Jargon

    Yesterday a colleague who had been faced with a lot of long documents filled with confusing language came out with a great phrase: I didn’t know where to start. So, I didn’t There’s some science to this. Faced with choice… Continue reading

    An A-Z of Modern Jargon
  • The Problem With Finding Answers

    Don’t Look for a Great Idea. Look for a Good Problem – Greg Satell Yesterday I spent five and half hours in a room with my colleagues Carole and Simon trying to get to the root of a problem. Three… Continue reading

    The Problem With Finding Answers
  • Why Transformation Fails – And How To Avoid It

    The concept that 70% of change and transformation programmes fail emerged in the mid 1990’s. There’s actually little evidence that this is true. The 70% figure seems to have emerged because of a lack of clarity about what success looks… Continue reading

    Why Transformation Fails – And How To Avoid It
  • How Not To Solve The Health, Housing and Care Crisis

    Crisis (noun) ‘a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger’. ‘a time when a difficult or important decision must be made.’ The housing crisis can no longer be ignored. Neither it appears can the crisis in health. And nor can the… Continue reading

    How Not To Solve The Health, Housing and Care Crisis